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Unfortunately, Google Analytics is becoming increasingly less accurate as more and more people begin to use javascript blockers and other privacy tools. This i

Unfortunately, Google Analytics is becoming increasingly less accurate as more and more people begin to use javascript blockers and other privacy tools. This is especially a problem for sites with a high percentage of Firefox users, a significant portion of which are using the NoScript extension (it has almost 50 million downloads).

wysiwtf 18y ago
And there are easy ways that Google could track people with javascript turned off. I always thought they would add this as a 'Pro' feature and charge money for that option. So you'd have to pay for the complete stats, most personal sites wouldn't care about non-javascript stats, while most commercial sites would gladly pay the fee.
- chaosmachine 18y ago
  It's probably in Google's interests to make better tracking available to everyone. But I think trying to avoid script blocking by using other means is only going to trigger a filtering arms race.
  - tvon 18y ago
    The "other means" is providing a way to submit/process the web server log files.
    - jodrellblank 18y ago
      Google App Engine, you mean?
      - tvon 18y ago
        I don't mean Google App Engine, no. I'm not sure where you're getting that from, unless App Engine lets me upload my Apache logs into my Analytics account where GA will match up IP addresses to page views and whatnot... ? Not sure how it could since I'm not using App Engine for anything, even so I've googled around a bit for 'google app engine analytics' and I'm not finding any results about doing this for App Engine hosted sites either.
eli 18y ago
Well, that's true for all modern web analytics packages, no? Crunching Apache logs with AWStats is way more bogus given the ridiculous number of rogue bots on the web these days. Based on my (very simplistic) tests, very few users of my business-oriented site block ads or javascript, but I'm sute it depends on the site. Most of my users are stuck on IE, after all.
- chaosmachine 18y ago
  I guess I feel this pain more than most, since a lot of my sites are aimed at web developers.
jonknee 18y ago
Well get back at them and use a bunch of non-degradable JS. Kidding... Sort of :)

wysiwtf 18y ago

And there are easy ways that Google could track people with javascript turned off. I always thought they would add this as a 'Pro' feature and charge money for that option. So you'd have to pay for the complete stats, most personal sites wouldn't care about non-javascript stats, while most commercial sites would gladly pay the fee.

chaosmachine 18y ago
It's probably in Google's interests to make better tracking available to everyone. But I think trying to avoid script blocking by using other means is only going to trigger a filtering arms race.
- tvon 18y ago
  The "other means" is providing a way to submit/process the web server log files.
  - jodrellblank 18y ago
    Google App Engine, you mean?
    - tvon 18y ago
      I don't mean Google App Engine, no. I'm not sure where you're getting that from, unless App Engine lets me upload my Apache logs into my Analytics account where GA will match up IP addresses to page views and whatnot... ? Not sure how it could since I'm not using App Engine for anything, even so I've googled around a bit for 'google app engine analytics' and I'm not finding any results about doing this for App Engine hosted sites either.

eli 18y ago

Well, that's true for all modern web analytics packages, no? Crunching Apache logs with AWStats is way more bogus given the ridiculous number of rogue bots on the web these days. Based on my (very simplistic) tests, very few users of my business-oriented site block ads or javascript, but I'm sute it depends on the site. Most of my users are stuck on IE, after all.

chaosmachine 18y ago
I guess I feel this pain more than most, since a lot of my sites are aimed at web developers.

jonknee 18y ago

Well get back at them and use a bunch of non-degradable JS. Kidding... Sort of :)